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NON-BIOLOGICAL REMOVAL OF CIS-DICHLOROETHYLENE AND 1.1-DICHLOROETHYLENE IN AQUIFER SEDIMENT CONTAINING MAGNETITE
Citation:
Ferrey, M., R T. Wilkin*, R G. Ford*, AND J T. Wilson*. NON-BIOLOGICAL REMOVAL OF CIS-DICHLOROETHYLENE AND 1.1-DICHLOROETHYLENE IN AQUIFER SEDIMENT CONTAINING MAGNETITE. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 38(6):1746-1752, (2004).
Description:
Reductive dechlorination could not explain the removal of cis-DCE, and 1,1-DCE from a plume of contaminated ground water in Minnesota. To identify the processes responsible for removal, laboratory microcosms were constructed with sediment from the aquifer near the source of the plume. To distinguish non-biological from biological processes, the sediment in one experimental treatment was heat sterilized. In samples from different depth intervals, the first order rate of removal of cis-DCE varied from 0.31 to 2.31 per year. The rate of removal in sterile water controls was 0.071 per year. No significant difference was observed between rates of removal for sterilized and non-sterilized sediment. For 1,1-DCE, the rate of removal was 1.29 and 1.37 per year in non-sterilized and heat-killed sediments, respectively, while the rate of removal for 1,1-DCE in the container controls was 0.205 per year. The rates of removal in the microcosms are similar to the rates of attenuation in the field. Magnetite was identified in the sediment by X-ray diffraction and optical microscopy. At the concentration of magnetite in the sediment, published literature on the rate of non-biological transformation predicts rates of transformation that are consistent with the rates of removal in the microcosm study.